The Miracle Girl of Downton
by PrincessDaydream77
Summary: In the wake of the sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic, Cora received a letter bearing the name of her sister, Elizabeth Springer. Travelling to New York to face the worst, Lady Grantham discovers that she did indeed lose her sister, but finds hope in the woman's young daughter, Annabelle, who survived the hellish night, and returns to Downton with the child.
1. A Letter of Doom

The Miracle Girl of Downton

Summary: In the wake of the sinking of the R.M.S. _Titanic_, Cora received a letter bearing the name of her sister, Elizabeth Springer. Travelling to New York to face the worst, Lady Grantham discovers that she did indeed lose her sister, but finds hope in the woman's young daughter, Annabelle, who survived the hellish night, and returns to Downton with the child.

Disclaimer: I only own Annabelle. Everything else belongs to Julian Fellowes.

Chapter One

Cora was still reeling from the shock of the revelation Robert had just made to her. She would not quite believe that both James and Patrick had been taken by the Titanic, especially as they were not meant to have been going onto it for another month. It had changed absolutely everything.

It was strange to think of them, actually, going onto the ship on its maiden voyage, not knowing that they would never step foot on dry land again, that they would never again see their families and friends. That neither of them would live to see the sun rise.

The woman's morbid thoughts were interrupted, luckily enough, by a soft knock at the door. On her summons, Mrs. Hughes entered the room, bearing a silver tray, a letter knife and what appeared to be a telegram, a somber expression on her face, which the countess had expected, as she did not doubt that everyone would look the same way in the wake of such news.

"Telegram for you, ma'am." the housekeeper confirmed, her Scottish lilt a familiar comfort to the woman, who had precious little of it at that moment, a sense of strange foreboding taking over her rationality. She took the tray from the woman with little hesitation, placing it down on the bed beside her and gazing at it, as if it were a bomb that may explode before her eyes.

"Thank you, Mrs. Hughes." Cora told the woman with a smile, though her voice was still slightly distant. The woman swiftly took the hint in the woman's tone and exited, leaving her mistress to her own thoughts. She had no idea what the telegram would be about, but she had a strange feeling that it would not be full of positivity.

Desperate to discover whether her feeling was correct, the countess seized the letter knife and ripped open the top of the envelope, tearing all the way down the paper to get to the sheet inside. Unable to breathe easily until she had discovered the purpose of it, with the note shaking violently along with her hand, she began to read.

_Lady Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham,_  
_We regret to inform you that your sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Springer, her husband, Mr. Lucas Springer, and their daughter, Miss. Annabelle Springer, are listed as being aboard R.M.S. Titanic when it ran into trouble and sank._  
_Mr. and Mrs. Springer have unfortunately been listed as deceased from the accident, while Miss Springer is still unaccounted for._  
_Yours faithfully and regretfully,_  
_Charles Lightoller._  
_Second Officer of R.M.S. Titanic._

Time stopped, and Cora could hardly find the willpower to breathe. Her own sister, Elizabeth, and her entire family. Dead.

Elizabeth had always been the child of the Levinson family, even after she had produced a child of her own, due to the fact that she was the youngest daughter of Isidore and Martha, and thus remained to be seen as the baby by both her parents and siblings. Or she had done.

'_I just can't believe that Lizzy is gone.'_ the countess thought, her mouth, though in shock, unable to form the words, even when faced with only an empty room. '_She and Lucas were so in love, just like Robert and I, really. And poor little Annie, as well, she was under half the age of my Sybil, and even she is only just turned sixteen. It's all too terrible for any words.'_

Once the tears had dried on her face, the woman forced herself to think logically. The letter specified that both Elizabeth and Lucas had been listed as deceased, which meant that their bodies must have been recovered from the water. If they were fortunate, Annabelle's would not be far behind, and so it would not be long before they were laid to rest. As her elder sister, Cora would need to be in attendance at the funeral, and she would never miss it. She would not let go of a last chance to say goodbye to the more beloved of her two siblings.

Upon realising this, she rose from her bed, and reached out to pull the cord at her bedside, which would summon O'Brien to her, to dress her for the morning. If she needed to get to America this swiftly, then she needed to inform her husband of the necessity without a moment's delay, so that she could board the last ferry that evening. If she did so, she should reach the port in the States in just over a day's time.

However, just as her hand closed around the fabric covering, the middle aged woman realised something, a miniscule detail in the letter that she had completely overlooked, not recognising its importance at the time. In this detail, the woman found a reprieve from the awful emotion of loss that she had been experiencing. It gave her a second chance at life, a second chance to have a part of her sister near to her, even if the woman herself had been taken by the clutches of death.

Breathing a slight sigh of relief, Cora found that it had transformed into a tearful laugh, one that lasted only a moment, but was there nonetheless, that being all that mattered. The haze of utter despair that had fallen over her when she had read the telegram had now dissipated, leaving only a sense of respite that she could not have explained before. Her hopes rising with each passing moment, the countess raised the paper in front of her eyes, reading over the line that may mean that the _Titanic _had not decimated the Levinsons as much as they had thought.

'_Miss Springer is still unaccounted for.'_

Cora knew very well what that meant, and all the hope she had for the dreams that her sister had dreamt relied on the meaning as she saw it. It meant that Annabelle could be alive.

A/N: I'm publishing this to celebrate the release of Downton Abbey series four. I had the idea when I was watching Titanic, as I still had Downton on the brain at the time. I hope that you like it so far. Please review!


	2. An Image in the Sunrise

Chapter Two

A/N: Thank you to dream-on-sunday and SashaElizabeth for reviewing the first chapter. I really appreciate it!

Smoothing the pleated skirt of her mourning black, Cora rose from her seat in her cabin, as the ferry came into dock. Allowing herself a quick glance out of the window, the woman took in the familiar sights of New York and wished that she could allow herself the time to have a little more appreciation for them, but her mind was utterly fixated on Annabelle, and discovering what had happened to her only niece.

The American had been so absorbed in her own mind that she hardly noticed the crowds of people moving from the ship, and that she did not notice any of the specific people stood in the crowds that waited for them. It was only the call of her own name in the distance that brought the brunette out of her reverie.

Immediately, the countess began to twist and turn her head, searching for the person, the female by the sound of it, that had been the source of the voice. It had been a familiar tone, of that much she was sure and so she looked for a familiar face. It was not all too long until she found one.

"Cora!" exclaimed the woman, waving her arm a little, as if to indicate her position, had Cora been looking past her. She needn't have bothered, as the darker haired of the two was looking straight at her.

"Mama!" she replied, moving forward to embrace the redhead, though only for a moment, as propriety allowed, despite the fact that she had not seen her mother for ten years, on account of the on-going feud between she and her mother in law, Violet, and the ages of the girls being a little too young for her to go away for weeks at a time. Despite the fact that her youngest was now just gone sixteen, the woman supposed that she only thought this as an excuse not to leave them, and not to sit in America sipping coffee with her mother while she fretted over their welfare. Still, this occasion could not be helped.

"How long have you been travelling?" Martha questioned, as a perfectly reasonable starter for a conversation. The countess expected that this was merely a smoke screen for the awful talks that were to come, but went along with the question anyway. In truth, she would do anything to prolong the pleasantries, as it would mean more time before they needed to talk about poor Lizzy.

"I'm not sure, really, but it was a while for sure. Even with all this new technology, the boats don't seem to be getting much quicker." she pointed out, sighing a little. Honestly, the journey had been much longer than she had alluded to, as she had spent the majority of the time awake, while everyone else on board slept. However, she doubted that everyone else on the ship had lost two, maybe even three, of their family to the clutches of the Atlantic, where they had crossed.

"I doubt that they will any time soon." the elder finished, and it was now clear to Cora that their tearful conversation would begin. Seeing the raw pain in her mother's glistening eyes, the woman decided to spare her any more of it, and so spoke the question that she had dreaded since stepping out of the doorway at Downton.

"Have they found little Annie?" she asked, trying to keep her voice even, but unable to stop a small fluctuation in the tone. '_I have to stay strong.'_ she told herself desperately. '_Mama needs me, I'm the eldest. She can't rely on Harold to be comforting, he never has been. And if Annie is alive out there, she'll need me as well. She doesn't have a mother or father anymore, and she will need someone.'_

However, her thoughts of harbouring the child at Downton were put to the very back of her mind, as a gentle shake of Martha's head gave the answer that she had not wanted to have. '_They still haven't found her. The poor darling.'_

"They've been looking for everyone, of course, but they still haven't found her." the redhead explained, and Cora noted vaguely that those words were an exact copy of the ones she had spoken in her mind, but concentrated only on her mother as the woman began to cry noiselessly, tears slipping down her cheeks like raindrops on glass. "It has been five days since the ship went down, and if they still haven't found her, they say that they probably never will. They said that she is most likely just lying there, at the bottom of the ocean, that she…"

Though Mrs. Levinson could no longer speak, she did not need to, as her daughter understood completely. The crew of the ship had told her mother that if she had not been recovered by now, then she was merely another drowned body on the seabed. They would never find her if she was.

Unable to stop herself, Cora wrapped her arms around her mother. Propriety could be damned, because she was not about to let her mother waste away in tears, and so she held the woman as she sobbed. She had been through a hardship that most could not imagine, with her daughter and son in law taken from her, and having been told that her granddaughter could well lie on the seabed and that they could not even do the courtesy of returning her body for burial. It was all too much for her to take, and even the countess could not stop the tears that rolled down her alabaster cheek.

However, as the sun emerged in the sky, a light caught the eye of the younger woman, who turned to look at it. At first, she had assumed that it was merely a reflection of the sunlight off the water, but when she looked more closely, she saw that it was indeed a reflection, but that it did not come from the water, but rather from a person dripping in the stuff. A small child. A girl. A blonde girl.

Neither Cora nor Martha could not believe their eyes as the girl's face was finally caught in the beam, a familiar smile spreading across it as she saw the two. The only sound between the group was the brunette's small whisper.

"Annabelle?"

A/N: So, there she is. I know that this chapter is a little depressing, but it will get a little more light-hearted, I promise! Please review!


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